This invention relates to a telephone answering machine. More particularly, it relates to a telephone answering machine so constituted as to be capable of designating and listening to a desired message from among a plurality of recorded messages.
The telephone answering machine has been well known in the past as an apparatus which automatically responds to a call signal from a telephone line and records a message of a calling party.
A recording tape has been used as a message recording means in the telephone answering machine, and messages are sequentially recorded from the start point of the recording tape. During reproduction, the messages are sequentially reproduced in the sequence of recording, and an operator can check the contents of the messages.
In the case of the telephone answering machine equipped with a skip or repeat key, an operator can fast-forward the tape to located the recorded position of the next message by pushing down the skip key and can restart tape reproduction if the message he listens to is judged unnecessary. The operator can also locate the recorded position of a message which must be reconfirmed, and can again listen to the message by pushing down the repeat key and rewinding the tape.
However, in the telephone answering machine equipped with the skip or repeat key according to the prior art, it is necessary to detect a non-recorded portion between a message and another message so as to index the start of the desired message by conducting the fast-forward operation or the rewinding operation, or to detect a partition signal inserted between the messages. Consequently, the rewinding and fast-forwarding speeds cannot be improved. Still another problem with the conventional telephone answering machine is that the operator cannot easily and simply designate the message which is desired to be reproduced, and a troublesome operation is necessary.